Cloud9 has released Maxim “wippie” Shepelev just after three regular season matches, which means that the Russian player spent only half a year since joining them in the offseason. It is the first official move of the VCT Americas 2024 season.
The player announced that his time with C9 did not go as planned, although he stated that he intends to return to playing as soon as possible in any region or competitive level.
Wippie and C9 have managed an impressive 13 map wins in 30 maps across the offseason and the VCT Americas Kickoff since the beginning of the Red Bull Double agent event, although they only won two out of seven maps played during the Kickoff.
Making a quick roster move isn’t alien to C9, and it is not the first time C9 will do a fast roster move very early into the VCT season, just after the opening tournament. Something similar happened after VCT LOCK//IN at the beginning of the 2023 season, when C9 let go of their big free agent signing; yay.
They said the primary cause of letting Yay go was role issues, only for in-game leader vanity to leave the team weeks later. Those early departures didn’t affect the progress of C9 last year as they still managed an impact in VCT Americas play. This was despite the additions of two rookies, jakee and runi. They came close to qualifying for Champions on two different times while they finished fourth place in playoffs.
However, the schedule for 2024 gives the C9 team more time to fill the vacancy on their roster. Their failure to qualify for Masters Madrid means they won’t officially play until April. Many NA Challengers rosters are still incomplete as their season is yet to start. This should give C9 enough time to identify different players to try out next.
